By ZACH BRIGGS

Inside all of us there is a wild thing. People may look like they are heading for a business meeting, but that doesn’t mean they are bland and humdrum. They just might have a wild side that lurks within their personality - you just have to look deep down inside. This is the theme of the movie “Where The Wild Things Are.”

It starts out with a boy named Max (Max Records) pursuing his dog and growling at it - he really is a wild thing. He is outside fabricating a fort from a mound of snow that a snowplow made across the street. Max returns to his house to try to get his sister, Claire (Pepita Emmerichs), to examine his fort, but she’s on the phone and ignores him. When Claire’s friends arrive, Max forms a sneak attack and the next thing you know…SNOWBALL FIGHT!!! Her friends start chasing him, so he takes refuge in his fort. The kids jump on it and Max freaks out.

He is later lying in bed when his mom (Catherine Keener) arrives from work. Max goes down to confess his room’s mess, and he and his mom clean it together. Max’s mom is on a date at their house and Max acts like he rules her to get attention. He defiantly tells her to make him dinner, yells, stands on the table, and (to top it off) bites her. She is shocked and so is Max. He doesn’t know what to do so he just bolts out the door like a bullet shot from a gun. He doesn’t stop running (just like in “Forrest Gump”) until he gets to his destination.

Max finds a sailboat in the water and hops in to get away from his world. He doesn’t know where he’s going or when he will be back. All he wants is to get away. Max is just smoothly sailing when he sees an island with lights on the hillside. He heads for the island and as he gets closer the waves grow higher. After a while he lands safely on the island. He starts his trudge up the cliff to the lights. When he gets there he sees huge monsters and one of them, Carol (James Gandolfini), is throwing their huts into the inferno. Obviously he is upset or angry about something. “I don’t think the crazy’s been eliminated!” Carol yells as he throws a hut into the fire. Max feels Carol’s pain and smashes through one of the huts. Growling before he regains stability, Carol already likes him. The others wanted to eat Max because he ruined their huts, but Max tells them that he conquered the Vikings and that he has powers that can keep people happy. The wild things tell him that he can be their king. Everybody is partying and having a good time.

Then things get rough, so Max decides to cheer everyone up with a dirt clod fight. KW, Carol, Douglas (Chris Cooper), and Max go up against Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Ira (Forest Whitaker), and Alex (Paul Dano). “Come out!” Max says to Judith as she hides.

“No!” Judith replies.
“Why not?”
“Because you are going to hit us in the head with dirt!”

Douglas and Max see Alex and Douglas nails him in the feet. Alex does a double back flip and lands on his back. Douglas hits him in the head the next time. Alex complains and claims to have been injured and that it wasn’t fair for him to get hit. When the war is finally over and everyone is sleeping, Max sees Alex and goes to talk to him. There is a big wound on Alex’s head from the dirt clod Douglas threw at him. Alex finds out Max was never a king and is just a regular kid.

Carol finds out and is livid. He is so angry that he rips Douglas’ arm right off. Max is upset and no one is happy anymore so he decides to do what’s best - leave. Everybody is miserable because he has to go.

This movie was outstanding. It ties together the genres of adventure and drama. It also included a moral: home is where the heart is and family will be there for you no matter what. This movie is for those of all ages. In the theater I saw people from four years old to elderly couples. Remember to never lose that inner wild thing!